


Dialing

by showmethebeefy



Category: The Hunger Games
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, No Endgame, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags Are Fun, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 05:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2336387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/showmethebeefy/pseuds/showmethebeefy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peeta finds a cell phone number in a library book.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Making the Call

**Author's Note:**

> A bit outside my comfort zone but there it is. Might be continued, might not. Don't be surprised if it never updates.

Peeta ran his fingers along the worn spines of the library books in the ‘A’ section of nonfiction. His mind buzzed with thoughts about what books to check out this week, but none settled. His eyes fluttered closed, and he walked for a little bit, fingertips feeling the bumps and tears on the spines of the books. His fingers hit a book that was shiny and new, and he only could feel a couple of cracks in the spine. His eyes opened, and he pulled the book off the shelf. It was a book called _Traditional Archery_ , and it looked like it had barely been touched. Peeta shrugged and tucked it under his arm, where two books on art theory already resided.

After checking out from the library, he walked home to his family’s house above the baker’s shop. The air was crisp and cool, and if Peeta looked closely he could see the leaves on the trees beginning to turn orange. A smile came to his lips, and he continued walking, a firm grip on his books, breathing the nearly-fall air deeply.

About a block from home, he stopped, right next to the turnoff to the bike path, and looked up at an old, looming tree. Not just any old, looming tree, though. When he was younger, and still in high school, and even middle and elementary school, he used to come sit under this tree all the time. The tree contained a lot of memories, and some of the more embarrassing ones rushed back into his mind as he stood looking at the reminder from his past.

A thought struck his mind and he walked around the tree, to the part that wasn’t easy to see, whether on the bike path, the sidewalk, or the road, or all three if you were a really shabby driver. He crouched, and there it was, worn down, and barely legible, but still there: a slightly potato-ish heart, with the letters P+K inscribed in the middle, as if brazenly declaring that he and that girl he had liked, whatever her name had been, were going to be together forever. Hell, he’d never really even talked to the girl. She was always talking to her tall and manly friend, and never had eyes for the baker’s boy.

He sighed and sat down on the grass, back pressed against the carving. He could feel his butt squish against the ground, and the roughness of the bark ground into his back. The elements couldn’t reach this part of the tree, and so it maintained a more youthful appearance than the more smooth outward-facing bark.

Taking his jacket off and putting it beside him, outer side down, he contemplated which book to read first. Ultimately, he decided to leave it up to fate, as he put the books down in a rather small pile and pulled the one off the top. It was the archery book, and somehow Peeta was glad, though this perplexed him. He cracked the cover and heard the spine crackle. Looking down at the title page, he wrinkled his brow.

Under the typeface for the title cover was scrawled in messy handwriting a phone number. Peeta stared at it for a moment, and then pulled his phone out, dialing the number and pressing the phone to his ear. The phone rang and rang, the dull sound boring into Peeta’s ear. Finally, the phone clicked over to voicemail.

“Hi, you’ve reached Katniss Everdeen. I’m probably out working, or I don’t want to talk to you. Leave a message. Or don’t. Whatever suits you best.” The phone beeped, and Peeta was struck dumb, without an idea of what to say.

“Um, hi, this is Peeta Mellark,” he finally said, clearing his throat. “Um, I’m calling because I found your cell phone number in a library book on archery? And I just thought I should let you know. Yeah. Okay, bye.” Peeta hung up the phone and stuffed it back in his pocket. The book fell to his lap and closed, and he ran his hands over his face and sighed. That woman’s voice… it had sent strange prickles of memory up his spine, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t bring the memory to the front of his brain. For some strange reason, he hoped she would call him back. Perhaps then he would find out why she was so familiar to him.

The phone in his pocket began to ring. He yanked it out, in a sudden panic, adrenaline pumping, and answered the call.

“Hello?” he said, breathless with anticipation.

“Yeah, is this Peeta Mellark?” said the voice of the woman, Katniss Everdeen. Peeta nodded before remembering she couldn’t see him.

“Y-yeah, that’s me,” he replied. God, he sounded like an idiot.

“Okay, well, I was wondering if you wanted to meet. Malarkey Baked Goods, noon tomorrow?” Peeta’s chest tightened.

“How do you know I live in the same town as you?” he asked.

“Your phone number,” she replied. “It’s similar to mine. Now do you want to meet or not?” Peeta paused for a minute, thinking. “Well?” she said, obviously impatient.

“Sure,” Peeta said, finally. “I’d love to.”


	2. Baked Fucking Goods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peeta meets the mysterious Katniss Everdeen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The experiment continues. Who knows if it will be finished? I'm pretty proud of this chapter. It's longer than I thought it would be.

Peeta was back at home above the baker’s shop, otherwise known as Malarkey Baked Goods. The Malarkey Baked Goods that he had agreed to meet Katniss Everdeen at. Without telling her he worked/lived there. This was just one bad decision in a lifelong string of bad decisions. He plopped down hard into the huge, squishy green armchair his dad usually reserved for TV-watching.

What was he going to do? Just give her the book and say “Hey, wanna be friends?”

“Gee that’s a good idea, Peeta,” he mumbled to himself. “ _Fuck_ me.” He smacked himself in the forehead and sunk lower in the chair.

“No thanks,” someone said dryly. Peeta nearly fell out of the chair, with how fast he shot back up to sitting position. The girl standing there buckled over laughing.

“Delly!” Peeta exclaimed. “What are you doing here?” Delly Cartwright choked down her chuckles and took a few steps forward, tucking her hands in the deep pockets of her blue plaid dress. Her hair was in twin blonde braids, Peeta noted. A good look for her.

“Your dad said I could find you up here. Said you were in a _sour_ mood.” She plopped down on the armchair next to him, swinging an arm over his shoulder. “So what’s got you down in the dumps, friend?” Peeta muttered something under his breath about his dad and his god damn bread puns before focusing on the topic at hand.

“I’m just worried.” Delly motioned with her hand for Peeta to elaborate. “Yesterday, I found this number in a library book I took on a whim, and, well, I called it.”

“ _Oh_ , so this is about a _girl_ ,” Delly said. “I understand everything now. Let’s hope it won’t be as bad as _grade school_.” Peeta waved her off dismissively.

“I’ve wiped that whole thing from my brain entirely. Anyway, I agreed to meet her today, here, at noon. I don’t know what to do, Delly,” he said in a plaintive tone. “You’re a girl…”

“Only by the strictest definitions.”

“Help me, Delly. What if she’s pretty? What if my tongue gets tied up and I don’t know what to say?” Peeta was getting a little panicky. Delly patted his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, ace. You’ll charm her pants off, if so you choose.” She hopped up off the chair and pulled him up with her. She was a very strong girl, Delly Cartwright. “Now get down there and meet that girl!” She shoved him toward the ladder hatch. “Go go go! It’s almost noon!” Peeta scrambled for the hatch and made his way down it quickly. Delly watched him go, a proud glint in her eyes.

“That’s my boy,” she said.

* * *

Peeta ran a hand through his hair nervously. He leaned against a wall in the main bakery area, trying to look casual. He was failing miserably. Not for a lack of effort, of course. Peeta never did anything without effort. College, which he’d failed at miserably, had been a notable exception. It was the Mellark family curse. Every one of them had flunked out of college. It was the only reason he was still working here at this accursed bakery with his brothers, his father, and his cousin who was almost always high off his ass. Sure, he could always go work at the liquor store, but Mr. Abernathy scared him. So did his pastel girlfriend, who owned the cakes shop on Capitol Rd. Sure, it was a fancy place, but it was expensive. Peeta could make better cakes for cheaper prices. That was another place Peeta had considered working, but then he had considered his father’s heartbroken look if he told him he was going to work for Effie fucking Trinket.

The door’s bell rang, snapping Peeta out of his reverie. He looked up and coming through the door was an olive-skinned woman clad all in well-worn black leather. Her dark hair was pulled into a tight braid, and her piercing gray eyes, well, they struck a chord with him. For some reason, he felt like he recognized her. Nonsense, of course. He’d probably just seen her in a crowd somewhere.

Behind the woman was a huge man. He was blond, tall, and vicious-looking, and his white T-shirt bulged with muscles Peeta didn’t even know existed. Peeta gulped. He really hoped first that the woman was Katniss and second that the man behind her wasn’t with her. He looked down at the HELLO MY NAME IS: PEETA MELLARK nametag he had slapped over his high school drama club Much Ado About Nothing tee. Slowly but surely he convinced his feet to walk over to the woman.

“Hi,” he said. The woman looked at him funny. She was just a little shorter than him, but more than made up for it in the lean fury of her posture. It looked as if she constantly held herself in that locked position.

“You’re Peeta Mellark,” she said. Peeta nodded, gulping nervously. “Well I’m Katniss Everdeen,” she continued. “I brought my big, tall, scary boyfriend, just in case you were some sort of rapey creep or something.”

“Understandable,” Peeta replied. “Thankfully, you have nothing to fear.” He would have said more, but he was interrupted by his backwoods cousin, Buckwheat, slinging his arm around him with such force Peeta nearly fell over, and Peeta lifted very heavy bags of flour as part of his job.

“Ah, what a summer beauty ye’ve found, Peeta,” Buckwheat proclaimed loudly, windmilling his free arm around. Peeta struggled to hold up the weight of his cousin, who was a foot taller than him and almost completely muscle. “Maybe this one won’t reject yer sorry ass.” Peeta shoved him off. Buckwheat collided with the floor with a thud, getting his Malarkey Baked Goods shirt even more caked with bread crumbs and flour than it already was.

“Sorry,” Peeta said to Katniss. “Buck’s not exactly in his right head all the time. Gets a little confused about social conventions and the boundaries of personal space.”

“Is this your family’s restaurant?” Katniss asked suddenly. Peeta nodded.

“Yeah, I work here with my dad, my two brothers, and that asshole.” Peeta looked disdainfully at Buckwheat, who grinned up at him from the floor.

“Peeta Mellark, the baker’s son,” Katniss mused. “Man, your dad must hate you. You do know your name is basically Pita Cake?”

“Trust me, you don’t know the half of it,” Peeta groused. “It’s a family tradition. My brothers are Rye and Bannock, and my dad’s name is Soda, like soda bread.” He groaned. Katniss laughed. It was a surprisingly lovely sound.

“Look,” she said. “I’ve got to run. Got some online college courses to take, and Cato here has a job to get to at the butcher’s.”

“Yeah, okay,” Peeta said. “I’ll lose your number.”

“No, no,” Katniss replied quickly. “Call me sometime. You’re a dork, but you’re cool, Bread Man.” Peeta rolled his eyes and waved Katniss off.

“See you round,” he called after her. Cato, following after Katniss, turned back to give him a suspicious look. Suddenly feeling a little nervous, Peeta exited stage left to the back room which only served the purpose of containing the family refrigerator and freezer, and the ladder to the house above the shop. Delly, leaning against the ladder, grinned at him.

“You did good, man!” she exclaimed. “You did real good!”

“Yeah,” Peeta sighed, “but she’s hot, she wants to hang out more, _and_ she’s got a super scary boyfriend.”

“Look, my girlfriend was dating someone when I first met her, but that isn’t a thing anymore, obviously.” Delly rubbed his back as she assured him. Peeta looked at her, a little grumbly.

“That’s different,” he protested. “Madge broke up with that guy before she moved back overseas, and got with you. There’s some difference there.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Delly replied, smiling. “What matters is you were charming, and you interacted with the girl you had a crush on in grade school without puking.”

“Wait, what?” Peeta demanded. He had blocked out most of his memories of his earlier years of schooling for reasons he preferred not to remember.

“Yeah, man. Kat Everdeen. You had it bad.” Delly giggled. “She was always pretty cute. I can get why you liked her.”

“This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” Peeta groaned. “I don’t remember that stuff for a _reason_ , Delly. And now she’s back, and I can either ignore the hottest girl I’ve met in a long time, discounting you of course, or I can pull the pin on the goddamn grenade that was my childhood and go after the girl.”

“It’s your choice, dummy,” Delly said. “Now let’s get some food in you. Have you even eaten all day?” She went back to the fridge and got him out an apple and a couple of cold rolls.

Peeta begrudgingly took the food and ate, absentmindedly, and mused on his impossible choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this far. The cause of Peeta's mysterious avoidance of grade school, middle school, and some of high school will be revealed.


End file.
